The Scholar & Feminist 2013: Utopia

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Matriculated students and Barnard faculty & staff attend the conference for free. Otherwise, the cost of the conference is on a sliding scale. The recommended fee is $50. No one will be excluded due to lack of funds. If you are unable to pay, please select "Free" below.

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Free

The conference is free for matriculated students, Barnard faculty & staff, and anyone unable to pay.

Event Details

Utopia challenges us to imagine the impossible. Feminists have for years spoken of dreams, of excess, of revolution. Creating a space outside of what society makes available can be an act of survival in a culture that selectively grants and withholds the designation of full humanity. While many have shied away from the term “utopia,” wary of its uses as a cover for eugenics and other distinctly dystopian endeavors, this year’s Scholar & Feminist Conference argues that there is a consistent power that comes from confronting our desire–our “appetites and hunger”–for “spaces of possibility,” making “women’s long revolution… breaking all the old hierarchies.”

In concert with this theme, the conference format this year focuses on participation and collaboration. We’ll kick off the weekend with a screening of Wu Tsang and Roya Rastegar’s film Wildness, a magical and explosive exploration of “safe space,” queer community, creativity, and class, followed by a conversation with the filmmakers. In Saturday’s workshops, community leaders from a wide range of fields facilitate opportunities for creativity and organizing through discussion and brainstorming. Workshop topics include:

community design

coalition & justice

remix culture

open education

feminist parenting

sci-fi/fantasy

prison abolition

ending poverty

desiring change

climate change

food justice

intentional housing

Plenary presentations will be collaboratively produced and will intertwine academic, activist and artistic work and presentation-styles. Shaowen Bardzell, a pioneer in the field of feminist Human Computer Interaction, pairs with visual artist Youngsuk Altieri to present a feminist vision for the future of our lived environment. Pam McMichael of the Highlander Center teams up with social justice printmaker Melanie Cervantes of Dignidad Rebelde to show us what coalitional organizing could be at its best. And Marisa Rius, Director of the Program of Gender Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, comes together with director and performer Jennifer Miller of Circus Amok! to explore feminist and queer pedagogies.